


A Sight You've Never Seen

by xenxa_girl



Category: Free!
Genre: Day 1, M/M, Sakura Week, not mpreg, prompt: firsts, prompt: welcome home, sakuraweek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-11
Updated: 2016-04-11
Packaged: 2018-06-01 16:15:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6527101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xenxa_girl/pseuds/xenxa_girl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Rin, calm down."</p>
<p>"How can I be calm when my sister is about to give birth to your child!"</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Sight You've Never Seen

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so glad I managed to make at least one thing for Sakura week. I love this little fandom child.
> 
> This fic was written in bits and pieces (with many scenes scrapped) and then hastily pasted together. I hope the little editing I did was enough to make the story flow smoothly. Hopefully... please enjoy!

Rin had never been particularly bothered by hospitals before. The only times he visited them were for routine checkups and that one time his grandmother was submitted in after a nasty fall. He never gave the place much thought really. It was just a building where he can have his health evaluated and where others went to get their sickness cured.

However, for the past couple of months he had been frequenting the building as if his life depended on it and frankly he was getting sick of the place.

Still, despite his misgivings, he had to endure the sterile atmosphere for quite a while longer. At the moment he was in a private room in the maternity ward of Iwatobi General, feeling nervous and panicky and a little bit nauseous whenever Gou whimpered as she rode the wave of pain from another contraction. He couldn’t stop pacing around the room, his teeth clenching down harder on the thumbnail he was gnawing on. At this rate, he just might pass out before Gou could deliver.

“Rin, calm down.”

At those words, the redhead whirled around to face Haru, who was at Gou’s bedside, bravely enduring his own kind of pain by providing a hand that Gou can squeeze as she went through contractions. One part of Rin felt a little jealous that it wasn’t him comforting his sister through her pain but another part knew from experience how strong she can be despite not having an ounce of athletic ability in her. He wouldn’t want to be a target of that strength.

“How can I be calm when _my_ sister is about to give birth to _your_ child?!” Rin cried, pointing dramatically at his boyfriend.

Said boyfriend only sighed and rolled his eyes. He’s heard the same line, and variations of it, more than enough times in the past several months and it was getting very old.

“Oniichan, this is your child too,” Gou panted from where she lay, peeking through her slightly damp bangs.

Rin just pinched his lips together and looked away. “Technically it’s going to be my niece or nephew…”

“Rin, shut up,” Haru interjected with another sigh. “It’s going to be your child as well. We’re going to raise it and nurture it and teach it to swim, so accept it already.”

The aforementioned redhead made a strange gurgling sound before he turned away, his face blushing red to the amusement of the other two occupants of the room. Truth be told, even after nearly a year of having the idea in his head, Rin still wasn’t used to thinking of his sister’s child becoming his own. The kind of situation he and his boyfriend were in wasn’t unheard of, but it was far from common. What woman in their right mind would offer to be the surrogate mother for their gay brother and his boyfriend anyway?!

Apparently Gou was that kind of woman.

It had been on Rin’s birthday, just as his party was winding down. Most of the guests had left already and only close friends as well as Mama Matsuoka had stuck by afterwards to help clean up the apartment. Rin and Haru were on the couch, having a moment together as they looked over the gifts Rin had received. They were quietly laughing over the pair of fuzzy handcuffs from an old Samezuka teammate (“As if you don’t already have your own pair, Rin.”) when Gou approached them, nervous and fidgety, and told them of their second gift from her.

“I know you two have been thinking of having kids so… I’m offering to be a surrogate for Haru-niichan!”

Of course after that announcement, there had been loud exclamations of denials and concerns, but Gou was as stubborn as the rest of them and wouldn’t budge on her decision. In her words, it was as close as Rin and Haru could get to having a child that was theirs by blood.

It took quite a while for both Rin and Haru to accept her offer, especially Rin. It wasn’t easy to accept the fact that your own sister would be the mother of your boyfriend’s child. And as strange as it may seem on the outside, Rin did want it. He wanted a child that looked like a mix between him and Haru, that was related to both of them and that he can raise from the beginning. And since the law of biology prevents that, having his sister bear Haru’s child was as close as he can get to that dream.

So, after much planning, doctor’s appointments, and arguments, Gou was artificially inseminated on a balmy day in August. Aside from the occasional hormonal outburst and cravings at three in the morning, Gou’s pregnancy was smooth sailing. Even her morning sickness was not serious and did not last long. And now, nine months later, Gou was back at the hospital, ready to deliver a new life into the world.

Rin couldn’t be more terrified.

It was another hour of waiting until the doctor came back in to check on Gou, whose face was alternating between red as her hair and white as a sheet. Rin seemed close to having a panic attack and Haru wasn’t helping much on that front, considering he kept rolling his eyes whenever Rin muttered a complaint.

Fortunately, the doctor announced that Gou was dilated enough and that they were going to start the procedure. Rin and Haru were ushered out to wait with the others while Mama Matsuoka went to replace them as moral support. She was a better candidate for that than Rin and Haru. As much as they would love to see the baby being born, both of them would rather like to stay away from the sight of a bleeding and in pain Gou.

The wait for the child to be born felt almost longer than the wait for Gou to be ready to give birth. Rin was constantly fidgeting in his seat, a bundle of nerves that only served to add on to Haru’s own nervousness. Messages from the gang came plagued their cellphones, some of them promising to stop by after their work was over. Good thing Nagisa was in Tokyo because who knew what he would bring should he storm into the hospital. He’ll probably make the place his playhouse while they all wait.

After what seemed like hours later, Mama Matsuoka burst out of the room, a big grin on her face as she approached Rin and Haru, both of whom stood up the second the door was open.

“Congratulations boys,” she laughed happily. “You have a wonderfully healthy son!”

Surprisingly, it was Haru was swayed on his feet and Rin had to grab hold of him to make sure he didn’t fall. Though considering how pale Rin’s face went, he was probably holding both of them up.

“A… son?” the redhead whispered, in a mixture of awe, shock, and relief.

“Yes dear, an adorable baby boy. You two can go inside and see him and Gou.”

Moving jerkily, Rin and Haru returned to Gou’s room, only stepping aside for a nurse who wheeled out some equipment. Gou was laying on her bed, face flushed and looking exhausted, but she was smiling down at the blue bundle in her arms, eyes glistening. Rin was at her side first, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her onto his side as he peered down at the baby.

He wasn’t what Rin was expecting. He was small, his face smaller than Rin’s whole hand, and his skin was still slightly gray and wrinkled. Looking closely though, Rin can spy the stray wisps of red hair that fanned across that tiny forehead and a nose that looked like was inherited from his side of the family as well.

‘What color are his eyes?” Haru spoke up, taking up vigil at Gou’s other side and also peering down at the sleeping baby.

Gou shook her head. “I didn’t see. He probably won’t be able to open them yet though, so you’ll have to wait a while to find out.” She looked up to Haru, who met her gaze. “You should hold him now, Haru-niichan. He’ll be yours soon enough and the sooner he’s away from me, the better.”

With his blue eyes wide in alarm, Gou practically shoved the newborn into his arms, making sure that he was positioned correctly for supporting the child’s head. Rin could feel his eyes tearing up as he watched his lover stare at their child. Those blue eyes that he loved so much were sparkling and wavering in that achingly familiar way. Whatever tiny doubts that Rin still had for this immediately disappeared at the amount of love and wonder on Haru’s face.

“He’s… my son,” Haru breathed, looking like he still couldn’t believe it even though the evidence was right there in his arms.

Rin smiled, his throat working past the emotional lump that lodged itself there. “Yeah,” he rasped, meeting Haru’s shocked and still shining eyes. “I bet he has your eyes.”

“He definitely has your nose,” Haru smiled back and Rin was glad that he was sitting because he was sure that he would have stumbled at just how damn attractive Haru was looking right now.

“I just hope he doesn’t have Oniichan’s teeth,” Gou piped up, her lips twitching in amusement.

“Oi! I resent that!”

That has Haru chuckling softly and Rin had half a mind to go over and smack his lover in the head for his cheek. Fortunately for Haru, they were interrupted by a nurse who held a clipboard full of papers.

“Excuse me,” she said in a soft voice, holding her clipboard and a pen aloft. “Have you decided on a name for your baby?”

The Matsuoka siblings simultaneously turned their heads toward Haru, who blinked in confusion, then in realization. Legally, the child was his. Gou was giving him full custody since two men adopting a child together has yet to be legalized in Japan. It was all on Haru to name the newborn and he already had the perfect name to bestow on his first child.

“Sakura. His name is Nanase Sakura.”

If the nurse found anything strange about giving a baby boy a traditionally feminine name, she didn’t show it. She just smiled and wrote it down on the birth certificate before turning away from the little family to fulfill her other duties. Haru glanced towards Rin and was not the least bit surprised that his lover had his head turned away, a hand rubbing across his eyes to remove the tears that no doubt welled up.

“Oniichan’s such a crybaby,” Gou said in amusement, her own hand rubbing her brother’s back in comfort. Haru made no mention of the fact that her own eyes were suspiciously watery.

“Damnit Haru,” Rin choked as he turned back around, cheeks and eyes a matching shade of red. “Now you’ve gone and done it. Your son’s going to get teased all his life for having such a girly name. If you wanted to name him a flower there are others that are more masculine.”

“But it’s _tradition_ ,” Haru insisted. “And sakura is important to us, just like he is.”

That made a new wave of tears well up in Rin’s eyes, but he made an effort to hold them back. This was not a day for crying! This was a day for rejoicing and celebrating and drowning in love and affection! And possibly argue why it was a bad idea to name their son after pink flowers even if it was a futile effort!

And in his father’s arms, unaware of the bickering that ensued around him but bathing in the warmth and love of his little family, little Sakura smiled a tiny smile.

_I’m home_.


End file.
